Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns

with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236

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Ecclesiastes 7:1-4, 11-18 or Ezekiel 34:1-10

Psalm 9:1-10

Galatians 4:1-16

Matthew 5:38-48

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As Koheleth and Jesus tell us, the way of the world is that righteous people suffer, both the righteous and the wicked prosper, and God is in control. The combination of those three statements might seem incongruous. Throughout the Book of Psalms righteous people cry out to God for deliverance from oppression. Often they are understandably angry, but Christ tells us to pray for our persecutors and to love our enemies. Interestingly, nowhere does the Hebrew Bible command anyone to love one’s enemies, and, as we have read previously in this series of posts, God prospers that the wicked change their ways and find mercy. Yet many of the wicked refuse to repent, so the divine deliverance of the oppressed becomes bad news for oppressors.

The call to radical love thunders off the pages of the Sermon on the Mount. We are to trust in God, not ourselves, and be so loving as to seem foolish to many. Such love breaks the cycle of anger, resentment, revenge, and violence. We, as inheritors, by grace, and adopted members of the household of God, are free to do that, if we dare.

May we dare accordingly. Then we, by grace, will be suited for our purpose, or, as Matthew 5:48 puts it, perfect.

St. Paul the Apostle was perplexed with the Galatian Church. Many members of it had reverted to idolatry or to the Law of Moses, both of which he considered to be forms of spiritual slavery. As he instructed the Corinthian Church, the proper course of action was to pass the test and remember that they carried Jesus Christ inside them. In Christ, according to St. Paul, was liberation, although not to engage in negative activities, but to build up the faith community, and to pursue virtue (2 Corinthians 12:19-21).

The theme of rebelling against God unites these days’ readings. Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron, laid incense upon their fire pans in violation of divine instructions. This constituted sacrilege and an attempt to control God.

Further, the sin of the two brothers was not simply that they went too far in their super-piety. Rather, they acted in utter disregard for the deity. God intended that the manifestation of His Presence would ignite the altar fire, marking His acceptance of His people’s devotion. Their intent was for the divine fire to ignite their own pans; that is, they were attempting to arrogate control of the deity for themselves.

—The Jewish Study Bible, Second Edition (2014), page 216

Divine fire consumed the two priests.

Disregard for God was present in the population as a whole. Idolatry and arrogance were difficult habits to break. This was true in Biblical times, as in the days of Elisha. It was true in the time that Jesus of Nazareth walked the face of the earth.

It remains true today, for human nature is a constant factor.

God is a consuming fire. Fire is a destructive force, reducing much to ashes. Yet destruction is frequently part of a creative process, as in the renewal of ecosystems in forests. Divine fire destroys the corrupt and idolatrous, and arrogant so that seeds of fidelity, justice, and humility may germinate.

Jesus faced a difficult decision, and he resolved to take up his cross. His challenge to the Apostles to do likewise has applied to members of generations for nearly 2000 years. Will we be faithful or will we seek the easy way out? Will we turn away from the truth, or will we act as people with Jesus Christ in them? Will we follow the fire of the Holy Spirit or will we risk the fire of divine punishment?

The readings for these three days speak of freedom, judgment, and mercy. In Nahum 1 mercy for the Israelites was judgment upon the Assyrians. Judgment upon Jerusalem came in Zephaniah 3. The authors of Daniel 12 and Revelation 14 wrote of an eschatological judgment, something one reads about (sort of) in Matthew 12. Condemnation resulted from the abuse of freedom.

The late C. H. Dodd summarized a vital lesson in these readings better than my ability to paraphrase. The Kingdom of God, Dodd wrote, is nearer to or further away only from a human, temporal perspective.

There are particular moments in the lives of men and in the history of mankind when what is permanently true (if largely unrecognized) becomes manifestly and effectively true. Such a moment is reflected in the gospels….But when a person (or a society) has been presented with such a challenge and declines it is not just where he was before. His position is the worse for the encounter. It is this that gives point to the tremendous warnings that Jesus is reported to have uttered about the consequences of rejection….Whatever possibility of disaster may lurk within the choice which is offered, the facing of the choice, in the freedom which the Creator allows to his creatures, in itself raises life to greater intensity. The coming of the kingdom meant the open possibility of enhancement of life; it also meant the heightening of moral responsibility.

May we exercise our freedom to become better people, build up our neighborhoods and society, lift each other up, seek the common good, and glorify God. May our love for God and each other be active and contagious. And may our words, even if they are impressive in the service of God, be far less eloquent than our actions in the same cause. May all of this prove to be true because righteousness is good and we seek that which is good. And may we succeed by grace and be among God’s faithful servants.

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ;

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

–The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236

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The Assigned Readings:

Judges 14:1-20 (July 14)

Judges 15:1-16:3 (July 15)

Judges 16:4-30 (July 16)

Psalm 103 (Morning–July 14)

Psalm 5 (Morning–July 15)

Psalm 42 (Morning–July 16)

Psalms 117 and 139 (Evening–July 14)

Psalms 84 and 29 (Evening–July 15)

Psalms 102 and 133 (Evening–July 16)

Galatians 3:1-22 (July 14)

Galatians 3:23-4:11 (July 15)

Galatians 4:12-31 (July 16)

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Samson boasted of his own strength, gave God no credit much of the time, and had bad taste in women. His first love pleased him. She was, according to the Alexandrian Greek text of Judges 14:1,

…the right one in his eyes.

She was also a Gentile.

The full view of Gentiles in the Hebrew Scriptures is not

Jews good, Gentiles bad.

Rahab the prostitute recognized Yahweh as God, so the Israelite forces spared her and her family. Later in the Bible, Ruth, a Moabite, became an ancestor of King David. Both women were, according to the beginning of Matthew 1, ancestors of Jesus. The reality that most Gentiles would continue in their traditions led to the command for Jews to choose life partners faithful to God.

The Law of Moses defined that fidelity for a long time. The Law, in Pauline theology, was like a house slave responsible for raising children. No matter how capable that disciplinarian was, the children outgrew their need for him or her. And Jesus, in whom there is no longer a distinction between Jew or Greek, has fulfilled the Law.

I do not pretend to understand all the implications of the previous statement, but that is fine. Reliance on knowledge for salvation is Gnosticism, a grave heresy. Rather, I accept readily the limits of my understanding and leave the details to God, who does grasp them.

I do know at least one thing, however: seeking companionship of various forms with people who are faithful to God remains crucial.

Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints (2010), of The Episcopal Church, contains an adapted two-years weekday lectionary for the Epiphany and Ordinary Time seasons from the Anglican Church of Canada. I invite you to follow it with me.

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Galatians 4:1-5:1 (Revised English Bible):

This is what I mean: so long as the heir is a minor, he is no better off than a slave, even though the whole estate is his; he is subject to guardians and trustees until the date set by his father. So it is with us: during our minority we were slaves, subject to the elemental spirits of the universe, but when the appointed time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to buy freedom for those who were under the law, in order that we might attain the status of sons.

To prove that you are sons, God has sent into our hearts the Spirit of his Son, crying,

Abba, Father!

You are therefore no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, an heir by God’s own act.

Formerly, when you did not now God, you were slaves to gods to gods who are not gods at all. But now that you do acknowledge God–or rather, now that he has acknowledged you–how can you turn back to those feeble and bankrupt elemental spirits? Why do you propose to enter their service all over again? You keep special days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid that all my hard work on you may have been wasted.

Put yourselves in my place, my friends, I beg you, as I put myself in yours. You never did me any wrong: it was bodily illness, as you will remember, that originally led to my bringing you the gospel, and you resisted any temptation to show scorn or disgust at my physical condition; on the contrary you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as you might have welcomed Christ Jesus himself. What has become of the happiness you felt then? I believe you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me, had that been possible! Have I now made myself your enemy by being frank with you?

Others are lavishing attention on you, but without sincerity: what they really want is to isolate you so that you may lavish attention on them. To be the object of sincere attentions is always good, and not just when I am with you. You are my own children, and I am in labour with you all over again until you come to have the form of Christ. How I wish I could be with you now, for then I could modify my tone; as it is, I am at my wits’ end with you.

Tell me now, you that are so anxious to be under the law, will you not listen to what the law says? It is written there that Abraham had two sons, the one by a slave, the other by a free-born woman. The slave’s son was born in ordinary course of nature, but the free woman’s through God’s promise. This is an allegory: the two women stand for two covenants. The one covenant comes from Mount Sinai; that is Hagar, and her children are born into slavery. Sinai is a mountain in Arabia and represents the Jerusalem of today, for she and her children are in slavery. But the heavenly Jerusalem is a free woman; she is our mother. For scripture says,

Rejoice, O barren woman who never bore a child; break into a shout of joy, you who have never been in labour; for the deserted wife will have more children than she who lives with her husband.

Now you, my friends, like Isaac, are children of God’s promise, but just as in those days the natural-born son persecuted the spiritual son, so it is today. Yet what does the scripture say?

Drive out the slave and her son, for the son of the slave shall not share the inheritance with the son of the free woman.

You see, then, my friends, we are no slave’s children; our mother is the free woman. It is for freedom that Christ set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and refuse to submit to the yoke of slavery.

Psalm 138 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):

1 I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with my whole heart;

before the gods I will sing your praise.

2 I will bow down toward your holy temple

and praise your Name,

because of your love and faithfulness;

3 For you have glorified your Name

and your word above all things.

4 When I called, you answered me;

you increased my strength within me.

5 All the kings of the earth will praise you, O LORD,

when they have heard the words of your mouth.

6 They will sing of the ways of the LORD,

that great is the glory of the LORD.

7 Though the LORD be high, he cares for the lowly;

he perceives the haughty from afar.

8 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you keep me safe;

you stretch forth your hand against the fury of my enemies;

your right hand shall save me.

9 The LORD will make good his purpose for me;

O LORD, your love endures for ever;

do not abandon the works of your hands.

Luke 11:29-32 (Revised English Bible):

With the crowds swarming round him [Jesus] he went on to say:

This is a wicked generation. It demands a sign, and the only sign that will be given it is the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man to this generation. The queen of the south will appear in court when the men of this generation are on trial, and ensure their condemnation; for she came up from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and what is here is greater than Solomon. The men of Nineveh will appear in court when this generation is on trial, and ensure its condemnation; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and what is here is greater than Jonah.

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Christian liberty is a theme which runs through the Letter to the Galatians. This liberty frees us to fulfill our spiritual potential as heirs, not servants, and as children of God. That is the context for Paul’s words which follow:

Your religion is beginning to be a matter of observing special days and months and seasons and years.–Galatians 4:10, The New Testament in Modern English, J. B. Phillips, 1972

Paul referred to the legalistic observance of Jewish fasts and feasts, as well as to certain Gentile (Pagan) celebrations. The key word in the previous sentence is “legalistic.” Many rituals are inherently neutral; the good or bad of them comes from those who observe them.

I am an Episcopalian and an unrepentant ritualist. I remember a conversation from the early 1990s. Some students from the Baptist Student Union at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, Tifton, Georgia, criticized formal worship, saying that it consisted of merely going through the motions. The wording they used suggested that they understood the most sincere worship to be the simplist worship. They did not grasp that one can go through the motions regardless of whether one has two or thirty-two of them. And, as Father Peter Ingeman, Rector of Christ Episcopal Church, Valdosta, Georgia, has said correctly, a liturgy is simply an agreed-upon, regular, and predictable pattern of worship. So anyone who attends a church with an agreed-upon, regular, and predictable pattern of worship goes to a liturgical church.

There is a story, which might be true. The pastor of First Baptist Church in a county seat town in the U.S. South hosted a community Thanksgiving service. The local Episcopal priest participated. At the appointed time, the host pastor introduced the priest:

Now Father Jones from the Episcopal Church will say one of his…written prayers.

The priest walked to the pulpit and said,

Let us pray. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name….

Paul did not write that Christians should no longer observe festivals and keep the Sabbath, although an inaccurate reading of the passage can point in that direction. Indeed, the interpretation of Galatians 4:9-11 has led to the condemnation of the religious observance of Christmas and Easter. A textbook example of one variety of Calvinist Jure Divino theology is the following resolution, which the 1899 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, the old “Southern Presbyterian Church,” passed:

There is no warrant for the observance of Christmas and Easter as holy days, but rather contrary (see Galatians iv.9-11; Colossians ii.16-21), and such observance is contrary to the principles of the Reformed faith, conducive to will-worship, and not in harmony with the simplicity of the gospel in Jesus Christ.

—The Journal of the General Assembly, 1899, page 430

Rituals mark time and transitions. This time differs from that time, and a certain ritual divides them. One can argue convincingly, for example, that a couple is (or ought to be) spiritually married prior to the marriage ceremony, but the ritual does define the moment they become married in the eyes of the church, the state, or both. This is an important distinction in law and society. And I had become a de facto Episcopalian prior to my confirmation, but now I have a date to observe every year. (The anniversary of my confirmation is December 22.) Rituals help with regard to social cohesion. What separates boys from men, informal couples from married people, lay people from clergy, and students from graduates? Rituals. And what gives unique characters to the seasons of Advent, Christmas, the Season after Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and the Season after Pentecost? Rituals.

Paul meant that one ought not observe certain days then think that one has fulfilled one’s duties. Religion ought not to consist entirely of such occasions, but they can enrich it.

O God, you have taken to yourself Blessed Mary, mother of your incarnate Son: Grant that we, who have been redeemed by his blood, may share with her the glory of your eternal kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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One day in the middle 1990s, when I was late in my undergraduate college career, I sat in a mall food court in Brunswick, Georgia, with my parents and one my mother’s coworkers, a woman of the Protestant Pentecostal/Charismatic persuasion. I had just purchased a two-CD set of settings of the Stabat Mater (a Roman Catholic devotional text about Jesus’ mother at the foot of the cross) composed in the 1600s and 1700s. My mother’s coworker made a remark about the death of the Holy Mother of Our Lord, and I responded by affirming St. Mary’s assumption. At that moment I realized how far I had moved from my Protestant upbringing and how glad I was to have done so. I knew also that I did not live in the same theological universe as did many Protestants.

The Western Christian Church calendar contains multiple feasts of the Mother of God; this is the generic one on the Episcopal calendar. (This is, however, the Feast of the Assumption of Mary on the Roman Catholic calendar.) All such events are really feasts of Jesus, for St. Mary does not matter except within the context our Lord and Savior. Jesus honored his mother; may we do likewise.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 13, 2010

THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR C

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From the Stabat Mater text:

Love’s sweet fountain, Mother tender,

haste this hard heart, soft to render,

make me sharer in Thy pain.

Fire me now with zeal so glowing,

love so rich to Jesus flowing,

that I favor may obtain.

Holy Mother, I implore Thee,

Crucify this heart before Thee-

Guilty it is verily!

Published Originally at SUNDRY THOUGHTS OF KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR on June 13, 2010